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Chatting with Eliza is fun, but it's better to set up your own accounts and chat with your friends. To do this, you must find a server on which to create an account. Jabber.org lists a number of public Jabber (XMPP) servers in addition to running one itself. See http://jabber.org/network for the full list. This is the easiest path. Pick a server, sign up for an account, and chat away.
Note: You should be aware that the XMPP and Jabber protocols share ancestry but have some subtle incompatibilities. As a result, you may experience some glitches when using the Hyperbola application and Smack with some servers. Typically, this is in the more advanced or fringe areas.
Chatting with Eliza is also good for testing, but may not be convenient for people on the road, behind firewalls, etc. The alternative is to install and run a server on your machine. There are several free XMPP servers available for download. Again, Jabber.org has a list of free server software. See http://jabber.org/software/servers.shtml for a complete listing. When writing this book, we used Jive Messenger with great success. Of course, it helps that Jive Messenger and Smack are developed by the same company!
Setting up Messenger is quite easy. Start by downloading the server from http://jive-software.org/messenger, or get it from the jive-messenger directory on the CD included with the book. Then follow the installation instructions. Once it's installed, configure the server using a Web browser. The installation process automatically launches a browser and asks you to create an administrator login. Once the server is running, ensure that under Server Settings > Registration & Login that both Inband Account Registration and Anonymous login are enabled. This allows you to create new users from the Hyperbola application. Then run the sample Hyperbola for Chapter 23 which allows you to create users.
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